I grew up in the West Island of Montreal, Canada, and didn’t live near water, never mind the ocean! So, I’m not sure where my love of marine life comes from, but I remember that as a kid I used to watch the “Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”. In my late 20s I started traveling regularly to sunny destinations to escape Montreal’s frigid winters. I started snorkeling and loved seeing all the beautiful colorful fish on the reef. Back then I was taking pictures with a single-use underwater film camera. Those images were hit and miss, but I was bringing home memories.
I got certified in 2012, and did my first dives in Brockville, Canada. I was amazed by the old wooden shipwreck (the Lillie Parsons) resting on the bottom of the St Lawrence River. Later, I tried diving in the warm waters of Mexico and was hooked! I just loved seeing the colorful reefs thriving with life and wanted to share this beauty with others.
A year or so later I got my first camera, a Go-Pro, and started videotaping the whole dive! I quickly became overwhelmed by all the footage and switched to underwater still photography. On a dive trip to Grand Cayman, I saw images of tiny subjects taken with a TG-4 by a fellow diver and knew that macro was something that I wanted to do more of. I bought a TG-5 with the Sea & Sea YS-03 strobe and really liked the improvement to my images. I still use it today but have since added a SeaLife Sea Dragon pro dual light. When possible, I also like experimenting with natural light. While this setup cannot always get me the perfect shot, it’s small enough to easily bring along and I’m still learning with it and having fun. And it allows me to capture both macro and larger subjects.
When we moved to Florida in 2017, my husband and I continued our training with rescue and other certifications, becoming master scuba divers. This gave us more confidence to go shore diving on our own. We started diving regularly at the Blue Heron Bridge, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, and other local sites. We were diving so often that we even invented the DRYFOB to bring our car keys along with us while shore diving. We now find ourselves semi-retired with a dive business and go diving whenever we have the chance. I also have a travel and scuba blog, freedomtourtravel.com, where I write reviews of dive resorts and travel destinations among other things. All the images on my blog are my own and it’s a nice way to share them with others.
My goal with underwater photography is to show people the beauty of the underwater world and its inhabitants so they can see how amazing it is and will want to protect it. In a few words, my style of underwater photography is to capture images of creatures that make me smile or that I find interesting. Searching for small critters hidden on the reef or in the rubble is like going on a treasure hunt and a really nice way to spend a few hours. All the images in my gallery were taken with my TG-5.